0England vs New Zealand: First Test, Day 1

It was sup­posed to be oh so simple wasn’t it?

The Kiwis over as the apéri­tif for the forth­com­ing Ashes clash later on in the year. So one day in to a sum­mer of anti­podean crick­et and with the home side win­ning the toss and elect­ing to bat, surely Eng­land have raced away at 3+ an over against a second rate attack?

Not exactly. Steady pro­gress dur­ing the 80 over of play. Hardly an A+ score but a reas­on­able C grade. Eng­land still have wick­ets in hand with the two York­shire boys (Tim Bresnan was left out from the final XI) at the crease.

It was the rate of scor­ing that per­haps sur­prised some observ­ers. Fans of the mod­ern game have been raised on a diet of 4+ runs an over scored by maraud­ing Aus­sies. 160 runs in 80 overs – even my maths cal­cu­lates that at bang on 2 runs per over.

But remem­ber folks that this is TEST crick­et. It’s a TEST for the bowl­ers and the bats­men. And New Zeal­and’s attack should not be writ­ten off. England’s num­ber 3, Jonath­an Trott, cor­rectly poin­ted out that there are no easy inter­na­tion­al runs. It might sound like a cliché but he’s spot on. If Eng­land had raced away on the first day and scored 300 odd for 0 then people would be bored already – an Eng­land vic­tory or a draw almost guaranteed.

Instead we have a finely bal­anced con­test that could go either way. A couple of quick wick­ets early doors for the New Zeal­anders and Eng­land could post a score around the 250 mark. Or Root and Bair­stow could con­tin­ue on with their fine inter­na­tion­al starts (espe­cially Root who has been in top form for York­shire) and post a good score and declare just after tea tomorrow.

An excit­ing (or should that be test­ing) day’s play awaits!